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French
French (le français [lə fʁɑ̃sɛ] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fr-le_fran%C3%A7ais-fr-ouest.ogg listen) or la langue française [la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the province of Quebec and the Acadia region in Canada, the Acadiana region of the U.S. state of Louisiana, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of whom reside in Francophone Africa.[5] In Africa, French is most commonly spoken in Gabon (where 80% report fluency)[5] Mauritius (78%), Algeria (75%), Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire (70%). French is estimated as having between 70 million[6] and 110 million[7] native speakers and 190 million second language speakers.[3] French is the second-most studied foreign language in the world, after English.[8][9] French is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish,Romanian, Sardinian and Catalan. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and Belgium, which French has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul, and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, la francophonie, the community of French-speaking countries. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to theEuropean Union[citation needed], 129 million, or twenty-six percent of the Union's total population, can speak French, of whom 72 million are native speakers (65 million in France, 4.5 million in Belgium, plus 2.5 million in Switzerland, which is not part of the EU) and 69 million are second-language or foreign language speakers, thus making French the third language in the European Union that people state they are most able to speak, after English and German. Twenty percent of non-Francophone Europeans know how to speak French, totaling roughly 145.6 million people in Europe alone.[10] George Weber, author of "Top Languages: The World's 10 most influential Languages", wrote that until the end of the nineteenth century, French had a global dominance similar to that now occupied by English. He said "nobody could pass for educated without the ability to speak French" and "However, French dominance was never so complete as its rival's is now for the simple reason that 100 years ago large parts of the world were not yet connected to rest as they are all today. In Mongolia it was sufficient to speak Mongolian, in Madagascar Malagasy could get you anywhere. Globalization had not been heard of then."[3] As a result of extensive colonial ambitions ofFrance and Belgium (at that time governed by a French-speaking elite), between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, the Levant, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie, French speakers will number approximately 500 million people in 2025 and 650 million people, or approximately seven percent of the world's population by 2050.[11][12] Resources 'Rosetta Stone' *5 levels available. *Recommended as a beginning tool *'Strongly not recommended to be used as the only tool.' *Covers pronounciation, reading, listening, vocabulary, writing. *Very poor for grammar. *Easy to use. Shouldn't take more than an hour to set up and begin using. *More expensive than it's worth. Thank you based internet! 'Pimsleur' *3 levels with 100 total lessons. *Recommended as a learning tool. *'Strongly not recomended to be used as the only tool.' *Covers mainly speaking and being able to hold a conversation. *Easy to use, just open the audio file and repeat. *Much more expensive than it's worth. Thank you based internet! 'Duolingo' *Still in beta testing. 'French.about.com' *Free website containing hundreds of great lessons on a variety of topics. *Great source for new vocab which is found in relevant categories. *Grammar is explained easily to understand as the writer is a French teacher. *Many lessons come with quizzes to perfect your knowledge. *'Only covers reading and writing-use other resources for speaking and listening and in addition to it.' 'Podcast Français Facile' *Podcast to improve listening and speaking skills. *Covers many topics: grammar, phónetique, slang, vocabulaire, etc. *It can be used online without downloading the podcast. 'Books and .PDF files' *L'Étranger (1942) - Albert Camus *Le Petit Prince (1943) - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry *Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1945) - Alexander Dumas 'News' 'Movies' Subtitle websites *Subscene *Findsubtitles Movies *''Le goût des autres'' *''Les quatre cents coups'' *''Trois Couleurs: Bleu'' *''Trois Couleurs : Rouge'' *''La Règle du jeu'' *''Quai des Orfèvres '' *''La Grande Illusion'' *''L'Âge Des Ténèbres'' 'TV Shows' *La nuit nous appartient (episodes can be found on YouTube) *Bienvenue chez Cauet (episodes can be found on YouTube) 'Music' *Alizée (French Pop) *Amel Bent (R&B) *Calogero (Alternative Rock) *Christophe Maé (French Varieté)* *Francis Cabrel (Acoustic) *Gérald de Palmas (Alternative Rock) *Gregoire (French Varieté)* *Jean-Jacques Goldman (80s) *Laurent Voulzy (French Varieté)* *Les Amants de la Bastille/Mozart Opera Rock (Pop Rock) *Max Boublil (Comedy-Pop) *Mickael Miro (French Varieté)* *Nolwenn Leroy (French Pop) *Noir Désir (Rock) *Orelsan (Rap) *Pascal Obispo (French Varieté)* *Shy'm (Pop) *Superbus (Rock) *Yannick Noah (Reggae Pop) - *French Varieté is a sort of genre given to French artists which vary from being acoustic, to pop, to alternative, where no other genre really fits. 'Anime/Cartoons (French dubs)' *Têtes à claques 'Brotips' *This goes for all languages, but it's imperative that you use your interests and hobbies to your advantage. Identify what these are and include French with them. *French, being one of the main languages in the first world, often has its own translation of video games. Whether it be Battlefield 3, WoW, or Runescape, there's a good chance there is a French version, which not only exposes you to a whole new spectrum of vocabulary, but provides a French community along with that game which allows you to interact with natives, teaching you the colloquial language in the process. *To go along with that, you should also try setting your cell phone, iPod, or even computer (if you're brave), to French to learn technical vocab. Frenchgrammar.jpg|French Grammar Guide 1 frenchgrammar2.jpg|French Grammar 2 'Other' *Uz-Translations (a very useful that you should definitely check out) Category:romance Category:latin alphabet Category:smug Category:SVO